The crucial stuff: shoes and a day bag for trekking around Europe!

I've stressed about this.  A LOT.  It's important to find the perfect day bag and shoe for Europe.  Here is the advertisement of requirements needed to fill such a role:

SHOES
Must be...

• Comfortable (huge deal breaker here)
• Not look ugly
• Match almost everything I'm going to wear
• Not give me blisters (refer to point 1, above...)

DAY BAG
Must...

• Fit my huge Nikon 1 camera with both lenses
• Hold a sweater if I decide I'm not cold
• Be able to fit all the crap I buy that I don't want to lug around
• Zip closed at the top
• Work as a cross-body bag (for bike tours, etc.)

As you can see, this is a big deal.  Those are big lists!  Added to the fact that I don't care for cross-body bags on me, this made it a tough challenge.  Last night I determinedly marched into the mall with the single thought in mind that: I'm not leaving here without a day bag or shoes.  Tonight's the night!

And voila, I found the two items above at Aldo!  (Which incidentally is the same store I vowed never to buy shoes from again... but I'm desperate.  And they're cute...).   The shoes are super comfy!  And look cute on!  The day bag is amazing because the bottom expands for more room if needed, and the top flap can stand up to hold even more of my crap if I need to really shove it full!  And I can convert the strap into a shoulder strap or cross-body on the fly.  It's amazing.  Oh, and has lots of pockets - the cup holders of day bags!

Aldo store lady was very very nice and patient and offered to order my size shoes and new day bag online and ship to my house for free.  So I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Countdown to our Contiki is 21 days!  Exactly 3 weeks!  Aaaaanndd... I still have stuff left to buy. :P  But, I'm getting very close to being ready!

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Cruise countdown: 15 more days!

We're on the countdown! I can't believe it. I've been doing a LOT of prep work in the past couple weeks. Here's where I'm at...

Flights
Flights are booked. We'll be traveling West Jet, and it's my first time traveling this airline. Our flights will put us in Ft. Lauderdale the night before the cruise, although our flights are late at night, they're free - so not really complaining much there. :)

Hotel
Our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale was pre-arranged for us at a discounted rate (yay). It'll be a Starwood Westin hotel. I've stayed in Westin hotels before and they are just amazing! I'm sure this one won't disappoint either.

Train
We'll be taking the train to get to the airport. It's a 3-hour car ride, and our return flight hits a different connection city. So we'll be coming home via train as well. Opting to not take the connection on our return flight back to Toronto. We'll save about 5 hours doing it this way.

Registration
We registered today for the cruise - the MOST exciting part!!! We have a balcony suite, which I'm totally psyched about, and mom is too. This is my first ever cruise, so I'm excited to have a balcony.

Itinerary
We also received our cruise itinerary, which includes a couple private cocktail parties with our group, and all our dining reservations and shore excursion lunches. For ports of call, we'll be visiting Half Moon Cay, Grand Turks, Costa Maya, and Grand Cayman. Right now we're looking at visiting the Mayan Ruins in Mexico which I'd really like to see. We'll likely know more after this weekend.

...I *still* need to pick up US money. I've been lazy doing that, but every day I plan to go to the exchange office it's been raining and so I've been putting it off. I'll need to do that next week though. I've also been stocking up on sunscreen and all the travel items I'll need to take with me. I cannot believe how close our trip is - eek!!! 15 more days!!!

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Clothes shopping for the cruise

34 more days! Almost just a month. So I figured I'd better start thinking about packing - ugh. Considering it's -10˚C weather here right now, it's hard to think about summer. I need to dig through my last year clothes, but thought I'd pick up a couple new pieces to take with me, because new clothes are always exciting. And it'll be something I can use with my next Florida trip in May as well.

So here's what I got...

I love American Eagle. It's probably my favourite clothing store (and it's from Pittsburgh!) - it's the place I shop the most. The peasant dress was crazy hard to get, because it's been sold out for weeks! I got lucky one morning when they'd restocked online and quickly picked it up with the macrame belt (which looks awesome together). And I love the grey eyelet skirt; it'll be great for throwing on to go to the beach. THE BEACH!

Now I need to go rummage through my old summer clothes...I much prefer shopping online. :P

Oh, and did I mention I don't have to pay airfare either now?!! I found out on Friday our airfare is covered, I can't believe it! Now I really can't wait to go!

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